Abdul Bari Jamal

The Dad

Abdul Bari – or Barry to his Canadian friends – moved his family of seven from Afghanistan to Canada in 1991, after the Afghan Soviet war, realizing that the coming civil strife would mean more conflict and insecurity. A police officer and history professor at the police academy in Afghanistan, he was unable to continue practicing his profession in Canada and forged a new career as a hotel receptionist.

In 2004, when he heard of the town of Kandahar, Saskatchewan from a hotel guest, Abdul dropped everything to travel to this tiny town in the Canadian heartland. Although he had not been back to Saskatchewan in five years, he eagerly participated in this film, looking forward to this first family trip in over 10 years. In his retirement, Abdul likes to spend his days translating Afghan history books from English into Pashtu and writing his own books on various subject matters.